Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Forcemeat
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Peel and chop the hard-boiled eggs finely.
Mix the eschalot, lemon peel, and parsley with the eggs.
Pound the mixture until smooth and well combined.
Season and bind
Season with salt and cayenne to taste.
Add the yolk and white of one egg and rub together until well mixed.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,037 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Egg + parsleytop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,765 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Egg and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Hard-boiled eggs
- Form the bulk of the forcemeat, giving it a soft, tender body.
- Egg
- Binds the chopped mixture together so it holds its shape when cooked.
- Eschalot
- Adds a mild onion-like aroma and savoury flavour.
- Lemon peel
- Adds bright aromatic oils that lift the richness of the eggs.
- Parsley
- Contributes fresh, green flavour and aroma.
The step that matters
Pound until smooth and well combined. Thorough pounding breaks the egg into a fine, even paste. Uneven mixing leaves lumps of yolk and white, so the forcemeat sets unevenly and feels grainy instead of smooth.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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